Data from: Gustatory polymorphism mediates a new adaptive courtship strategy

Human-imposed selection can lead to adaptive changes in sensory traits.
However, rapid evolution of the sensory system can interfere with other
behaviors, and animals must overcome such sensory conflicts. In response
to insecticide baits that contain glucose, German cockroaches evolved
glucose-aversion (GA), which confers behavioral resistance against baits.
During courtship, the male offers the female a nuptial gift that contains
maltose, which expediates copulation. However, the female’s saliva rapidly
hydrolyzes maltose into glucose, which causes GA females to dismount the
courting male, which reduces mating success of GA females. Comparative
analysis revealed two adaptive traits in GA males. They produce
maltotriose, which is more resilient to salivary glucosidases, and they
initiate copulation faster than wild-type (WT) males, before GA females
interrupt their nuptial feeding and dismount the male. Recombinant lines
of the two strains showed that the two emergent traits of GA males were
not genetically associated with the GA trait. Results suggest that the two
courtship traits emerged in response to the altered sexual behavior of GA
females and independently of the male’s GA trait. Although rapid adaptive
evolution generates sexual mismatches that lower fitness, compensatory
behavioral evolution can correct these sensory discrepancies.